Cris Tales
Cris Tales is one of those games that will be strapped with the somewhat flattering “love letter” moniker. When developers grow up on a diet of specific consoles and games, it’s hard not to imagine they would wish to craft their interpretation of a childhood classic. If you told me developers Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK were devotees to Chrono Trigger, any SNES Final Fantasy, Br...[Read More]
Death’s Door
The Legend of Zelda all too often serves as a jumping off point of comparing and contrasting a vast number of adventure games. I suppose it’s difficult to separate how influential Link’s 35-year journey has been and how many developers around my age grew up slashing at Ganon with the Master Sword and have been inspired to make their own narratives about heroism. Acid Nerve’s Deat...[Read More]
Where the Heart Leads
Where the Heart Leads invoked memories of The Novelist, a “narrative adventure” I played in my early days of reviewing games. When The Novelist released in 2013, Gone Home was on the mouths of everyone. For me, that period felt strange and influential. I had spent so many years prior tearing through as many big budget games as my small budget would allow. The opportunity to play and re...[Read More]
Boomerang X
Boomerang X is one of the few games I’ve reviewed having virtually no previous knowledge of it. I was completely unaware that at some point in time my character would be throwing around a mystical boomerang and teleporting to it mid-air. As its title suggests, Boomerang X cuts to the chase fairly quickly. The boomerang is the only weapon players will use and it looks like an “X” ...[Read More]
Curved Space
There’s a strange disconnect amongst Curved Space‘s many parts. Before starting up the game I decided to peruse the options menu as I tend to do, looking for subtitle settings and making sure the sound is turned up. I noticed the ability to look at the game’s soundtrack–stuffed with synthwave tracks (a favorite genre of mine)–and listen to it in its entirety. I attrib...[Read More]
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade/INTERmission
Waxing poetically nostalgic on Final Fantasy VII is a difficult task for me. As a longtime gamer, one of the most culturally significant JRPGs is, in fact, a massive hole in my book of accomplishments. For all its availability on multiple platforms, for the numerous magazines I owned with it gracing the cover, for the dozens of hours I’ve watched Advent Children, I’ve never played the ...[Read More]
Victor Tech DC840 High Rise Height Adjustable Electric Full Standing Desk
Last year I was temporarily unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From March to around August I didn’t work and instead spent most of my time sitting at a desk or an office chair and figuring out ways to spend the day. During this period, I moved out of my apartment and moved in with my girlfriend who lived 30 minutes away from the job I was on a temporary hiatus from. When it came time t...[Read More]
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
“It doesn’t get any better than this.” That’s what I thought in 2007 after playing Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction. I had spent most of that winter season delivering pizza so I could have the cash to buy a PlayStation 3 on Black Friday. For Christmas my grandparents got me–per my request–Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. What a...[Read More]
Biomutant
Biomutant is a game I would recommend everyone play. It isn’t that Biomutant is an exceptionally dazzling game capable of redefining genres. Nor does Biomutant reek of any particular stench that would personally offend. What makes Biomutant such a solid recommendation is that, after a point, players will find themselves in the midst of a game attempting to fire at all cylinders and mostly ch...[Read More]
Rust Console Edition
My two minutes into Rust Console Edition I was killed by a bear. “Seems about right,” I thought to myself. Rust was released on PC nearly eight years ago, remaining on one of those many “why did it take so long to port?” lists. As a younger person with an under-powered PC, I watched the burgeoning survival genre with titles like DayZ and Rust, wondering why no one thought t...[Read More]
Resident Evil Village
In the grimy recesses of Eastern Europe or Spain or wherever it was, I thought to myself, “Leon Kennedy is having a really bad day.” All he wanted to do was save the President’s daughter. Instead he was met with a cult of weirdos who had bugs bursting out of their heads. And then he was stuck in a lake with a mutated reptile. Then he was being chased down by a mechanical leviatha...[Read More]
Subnautica: Below Zero Review
When first released into the wild, Subnautica took the survival genre by storm, offering a unique take that both dazzled and amazed. Between its deceiving simplicity to its beautiful nautical world, 2014’s Subnautica was instantly a cult classic. Fast forward to 2021, and Subnautica: Below Zero breaches through the surface to deliver another wonderfully thrilling adventure. Jumping into the role o...[Read More]